This litany sounds familiar—‘I’m too tired to have sex.’ ‘I go through the motions but it doesn’t excite me as much.’ ‘I don’t know why but I just can’t get into it even if I love my husband very much.’ ‘It’s weird but my mind actually drifts in the middle of sex. I start to think about what I need to do at work or I just blank out…’

Harried moms complained that their sex lives suffered significantly while they were under stress. It’s not just physical exhaustion, but a general malaise or lethargy. This becomes a particularly difficult problem when the stress extends over a long period of time. In a normal stress cycle, there are peaks (cramming for a presentation, baby sick with diarrhea, etc.), but these subside and return to normal levels to allow body and mind to recover before the next one.

But some moms often suffer from Hurried Woman’s Syndrome (HWS) where stress levels are mild-to-average but never subside. They go from task to task, problem to problem, never really recovering. This drains their physical and emotional energy levels significantly, including their libido, but since they don’t encounter bigger crises, they think they’re okay.

The symptoms of HWS are loss of interest in activities that normally interest them, irritability, depression, difficulty concentrating, fatigue even after a night’s sleep, sudden changes in appetite and low sex drive.

Click here to read on about how to deal with the Harried Woman's Syndrome.